Family fights U.S. Treasury over rare 'Double Eagle' coins
- July 07, 2011 10:56
A Philadelphia family began a court battle on Thursday with the U.S. Treasury over ownership of 10 'double eagle' gold coins from 1933.
The daughter and grandsons of jeweler Israel Switt (d. 1990) say they are the rightful heirs of the cache of coins---worth perhaps $80 million or more---found in his safety deposit box in 2003.
One similar coin sold at a Sotheby's auction for $7.6m in 2002.
Treasury officials maintain that the coins were never circulated and had been stolen from the U.S. Mint in 1933. The U.S. government seized the family's coins when they went in to have them authenticated.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard in 1933. The batch of 'double eagles' was melted down except for two in the Smithsonian collection, and a handful that mysteriously disappeared.
A lawyer for the family says that the coins could have left the Mint legally since it was permissible to swap gold coins for gold bullion.
100x100_c.jpg "‘The Surf Riders of Hawaii’ by A.R. Gurrey Jr., the earliest and most important book pertaining to the sport of surfing, circa 1910-1914, one of eight known survivors or an unknown original number. Handmade with eight gelatin silver period photos of surfers in Hawaii, adorned with hand calligraphy and including poetry and prose by Lord Byron and Gurrey")
100x100_c.jpg "Sheila Isham Tui II, 1972 Acrylic on canvas 42 x 52 in. (106.7 x 132.1 cm)")
100x100_c.jpg "Boba Fett L-slot rocket-firing prototype action figure, predecessor to the Boba Fett figure in Kenner’s popular 1979 Star Wars toy line, 3.75in tall, AFA-graded 80+ NM (archival case). Encapsulated with notarized CIB COA. Sold for a world-record price of $236,000 against an estimate of $100,000-$200,000")
![Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.](/images/c/e2/2e/Jan20_Rape_of_Europa100x100_c.jpg "Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.")
